The Lord of the Rings Online (commonly abbreviated to LOTRO or LotRO) is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) for PC and OS X that takes place in the world of Arda during the time of The Lord of the Rings. It was originally branded as The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, but with later updates, that subtitle was dropped.

The players take on the role of adventurers of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. The events of the game are concurrent with the events of The Lord of the Rings but most of the game revolves around events that occurred elsewhere or in the wake of events in the books. The game draws inspiration from people, places and events only mentioned in the books, combining these with original concepts to expand on parts of Middle-earth Tolkien did not. The main quest series of the game, known as Epic Quests, are divided into volumes, books and chapters, emulating the structure of The Lord of the Rings.

To date, there have been five purchasable expansions: Mines of Moria (2008), Siege of Mirkwood (2009), Rise of Isengard (2011), Riders of Rohan (2012) and Helm's Deep (2013), with many smaller updates in between.

Development began in 1998, when Sierra started work on a game called Middle-earth Online. Following Vivendi Universal Games' takeover of Sierra, the game's production was shared with Turbine. Turbine secured the rights of the entire game in March 2004,[1] and it was renamed to The Lord of the Rings Online. It was originally subscription-based, but later became free-to-play with optional paid subscription and microtransactions.

A closed beta was announced on September 8, 2006. An open beta began on March 30, 2007, and was open to all who pre-ordered the game's Founders Club edition. In April 2007, the beta opened to the public.

Main article: Character Classes (LOTRO)
Like many RPGs, The Lord of the Rings Online has a system of character classes and levels. Each character chooses a race and a class on character creation, this cannot be changed. Players are able to play as any of the Free Peoples - Elves, Men, Dwarves, Hobbits or Beornings. Male or female characters can be created, except in the case of Dwarves. As per Tolkien, Dwarf women are very rare and seldom leave their mountain halls. There are ten classes: Beorning, Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, Minstrel, Rune-keeper, and Warden.

Customization of the character's abilities can be done by changing equipment and traits. As of the Helm's Deep expansion, class traits work on a tree system, with each class having three "trait trees" where traits can be selected with earned points and unlocking enough traits in a particular tree allows higher-level traits to be selected and applies additional bonus. In addition to class traits are racial traits, such as Men being able to slot a trait to do additional damage with swords or Hobbits being able to slot a trait that allows them to throw a stone, and virtue traits which boost the character's stats.

Levels are significant, with much lower level enemies being extremely easy to defeat and much higher level enemies being nearly impossible to defeat. Each region has enemies and quests with a range of levels usually consecutive to those of an adjacent region. Quests over five levels above the character's level are inaccessible. In addition to being able to complete quest and defeat enemies in more locations, characters gain access to additional equipment, skills, traits and instances as they level up. Levels are increased by gaining experience, which is earned by completing quests and instances, defeating enemies of an appropriate level, and crafting.

The Lord of the Rings Online is an "open-world" game in which most locations that have been released can be freely accessed on an open landscape (although some places, such as Moria, require certain quests to be completed first.) The game world is split into "lands", large areas of Middle-Earth. As of Update 14 the three lands in the game are Eriador, Rhovanion and Gondor. Each land is in turn divided into regions, e.g. Bree-land in Eriador, and each region contains areas, e.g. Andrath within Bree-land.

Although most of the land is available to all for exploration, most regions require non-VIPs to purchase a quest pack to access quests, deeds and instances associated with that region. A few regions, such as East and West Rohan, require expansion packs to be purchased to unlock content, even for VIPs. Each region is generally seen as it was in a certain time in the War of the Ring, for example Lothlórien is visited by the player at the same time as the Fellowship of the Ring rested there, and Pelargir just after Aragorn liberated the city from the Corsairs of Umbar.

Much of the game's completable content is in the form of quests. Quests consist of a series of objectives, often including speaking with NPCs, defeating certain enemies, and recovering certain items from the ground or from defeated enemies. Most quests have a small number of objectives but may unlock additional quests upon completion to form a quest chain. Quests are usually started by started by speaking with a particular Non-Player Character (NPC), indicated with a ring icon above the NPC's head. The forms of ring icons and what they indicate are as follows:

Gold ring with blue aura: the NPC has a quest that is approximately appropriate for the character's level.

Gold ring with blue aura and fiery inscription: the NPC must be spoken with to advance the quest.

Bright gold ring: the NPC has an Epic quest available.

Gold ring with orange flames: the NPC must be spoken to to advance the Epic quest.

Blue ring and quill: the NPC has a comment about an active quest, speaking to the NPC will not advance the quest but may give additional information.

Gold ring with hourglass: the NPC has a quest with a cooldown, the player must wait for the cooldown to expire before accepting the quest.

Silver ring: the NPC has a quest that is too high level for the player to accept at that level.

Transparent grey ring: the NPC has a "trivial" quest, one far below the player's level.

Some quests are started by obtaining unique items dropped from specific enemies. The Riders of Rohan expansion introduced auto-bestowed quests, which bring up a quest prompt when the player defeats a specific type of enemy or finds a certain location. Such enemies are marked with ring icons similarly to how NPC quest givers are. Players have the option of accepting these quests automatically or choosing to manually accept or decline each prompt. Most landscape quests can only be completed once, some special landscape quests and most instance quests can be completed once a day any number of times, and a few landscape quests can be repeated at any time up to a certain number of times.

Quests are categorized according to what area, instance or other section they are associated with. Of note are the Epic Quests, a series that tells the main storyline of the game. In imitation of the Lord of the Rings book, the epic quests are divided into Volumes, which are divided into Books which in turn are divided into Chapters. Each Chapter is usually an individual quest. Epic Quests bring the player through the landscape but are considered apart from it, therefore most Epic Quests are available to all players regardless of whether or not any quest packs are unlocked. A notable exception is the end of Volume III: Allies of the King, which requires purchase of the Helm's Deep expansion to complete.

Deeds are non-repeatable achievements recorded on an interface window called the Deed Log. Common deed objectives include completing a certain number of quests in a particular area or region (Quest Deeds), defeating a certain number of enemies of a specific type in a particular region (Slayer Deeds), discovering specified locations (Explorer Deeds), and reaching the next tier of reputation with a faction. Most Deeds award Turbine points. Deeds in a particular region usually award reputation in that region's faction. Deeds also commonly reward marks, virtues, and titles

Instances are locations in the game separated from the open landscape, not accessible through normal travel. Instances can take place in either separate versions of the locations available on the landscape (for example, Pelargir while Aragorn's host retakes it from the corsairs) or in locations not accessible anywhere else (such as Dale). Most instances are private instances, that is, only one player or group of players can enter it and it closes when they complete it, while public instances can be joined at any time by any number of separate players. They are often repeatable, with ones associated with landscape quests being replayable through a Reflecting Pool in the associated region and others accessible through the Instance Finder window. Most private instances have associated quests automatically bestowed upon entering the instance and cancelled upon exiting.

Most open landscape content and associated instances are designed to be completable by a solo player, while some locations in the game and Instance Finder instances are meant for a team of players. A group of players with a maximum size of six is known as a fellowship. For larger groups, a raid of up to four fellowships can be formed, for a maximum group size of 24 players. Players are free to group on the open landscape and in public instances, but private instances have a limit on how many players may enter.

Players can found and join lasting organizations known as Kinships in the game. Players in a kinship can communicate in their own kinship chat channel to socialize and plan events with their fellow members.

The game is primarily Player vs. Environment (PvE), with most combat being player characters against computer controlled enemies found throughout the landscape and instances. However in the Ettenmoors region, players can participate in Player vs. Monster Player battles (PvMP). Players can create Monster characters that only have access to PvMP areas where they battle standard characters, who fight on the side of the Free Peoples. Each monster player class is limited to a specific race. The monster classes are the Blackarrow (Uruk), Defiler (Orc), Reaver (Orc), Stalker (Warg), Warleader (Uruk), and Weaver (Spider) As of Update 16.2 a new PvMP area, set in Osgiliath before Boromir's journey to Rivendell and accessed via a banner in the Ettenmoors, was released.

Towns and settlements provide Vendors where players can purchase or repair their armour, weapons, and supplies. Towns also often include Mailboxes, Auction Halls, Class Trainers, Forge-masters, Relic-masters, and Stable-masters who allow swift travel between regions.

The player interface allows other aspects of gameplay such as Character screens, Quest and Deed Logs, a Social Panel where players can interact, and a Crafting panel where players use skills to craft new items.

Shadows of Angmar was released on April 24, 2007. It included books 1 through 8 of Epic Volume I: Shadows of Angmar. Approximately once every two months a major free update was added to The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Each update added a new book to the volume.

The second free-content update was released on August 21, 2007 in North America and on August 24, 2007 in Europe.[4]

Updates included:

Continuation of the Story Line.

Legendary Play – Players can now use Destiny Points to play as a Ranger of the North or as a Troll.

Critter Play – Players can now explore Middle-earth from a different viewpoint as a chicken.

New Reputation and Bartering Systems – The Reputation system enables players to earn positive and negative standing with different races and groups in Middle-earth based on both monster kills and quest completions. The Bartering system allows players to trade trophies earned in battle for rewards, such as armour sets or mounts.

Character customization - Increased character customization "ranging from haircuts, to some (possible) additions to the trait-system." In addition, the Outfit system, along with special social clothing designed just for it, will be introduced where a second or third set of clothing can be slotted and displayed while retaining the statistical bonuses of the currently equipped items.[8]

The Delving of Frór - A new Monster Play PVE (and PVMP under certain circumstances) area was introduced: An expanse of caves and catacombs located beneath the Ettenmoors.

The Great Angmar Revamp - A revamp of the most high-level region of the game's current 9 PvE regions. The revamp included the reworking of many quests, areas and other changes, such as new horse routes.

Barbershop - You can customize the look of your avatar in-game with around 50 new haircuts and second set of details.

Mines of Moria was released on November 18, 2008. It included Vol. II books 1 through 6 of the epic quest line. Like Shadows of Angmar, Mines of Moria continued to regularly release updates. Updates were less frequent than Shadows of Angmar.

Siege of Mirkwood was released on December 1, 2009 in North America and December 3, 2009 in Europe. Unlike the second expansion this edition was only available via a web-based download. It included Book 9 and the epilogue of Volume II: Mines of Moria.

Kate Paiz, Executive Producer for The Lord of the Rings Online, released a letter on October 22, 2010 stating that updates will be more frequent but will not always be accompanied with a new book continuing the epic story.[11]

Book 2 was released on September 10, 2010 in North America. (September 8, 2010 for subscribers). It was delayed in Europe because of contractual reasons and was finally released on 2 November, almost two months after North America.[13]

The first post Free-to-play update was released in November 2010. Due to changes to how updates work this did not contain an epic book.

Updates included:

A Barter Wallet for skirmish marks and anniversary tokens.

Opening of Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood and Enedwaith to free-to-play players. Volume II and Volume III will also be available, as well the legendary item system, and the level 65 level cap all to free-to-play players.

The fourth expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online is named Helm's Deep. The expansion was released on November 20, 2013. [33] After the Helm's Deep expansion, Turbine has discontinued paid expansions in favor of quarterly updates with content free to VIPs. [34]

The Dead Marshes region was added later in the minor Update 14.2, released September 15 2014. This area included a Session Play featuring Frodo, Samwise, and Gollum's passage through the marshes, casting the player character as Sam.[39]

Cosmetic weapons and shields, more Roving Threats, and new PvMP map set in Osgiliath were released with Update 16.2 in July 17, 2015. A new quest series of weekly episodic content, following the adventures of the Hobbit Bingo Boffin, was begun the Wednesday after the update, on July 22.[44]

Éogan was the second in command of the Blackwolds and took over leadership of the group after William Skunkwood's death.

The Huntsman was a spirit found in Enedwaith who took the shape of a large man with horns of a stag. Many players thought this was Oromë. The developers confirmed that it wasn't Oromë but a Maia of Oromë.[46]

Skorgrím was a dwarf and leader of the Dourhands. He was slain during the Battle of Edhelion. His corpse was used as a vehicle by Ivar the Bloodhand who possessed it with a fell spirit to trick the Dourhands to ally themselves with the forces of Angmar.

The Dourhands was a clan of dwarves aligned with the forces of Angmar. They were the dwarves that stayed behind to rebuild the Dwarven Halls in the Blue Mountains which were destroyed during the War of Wrath.

Agamaur was a vast swamp of the Lone-lands. It was a site of a major battle between Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur. To the west were the ruins of Ost Guruth, a fortress of Arnor claimed by the nomadic Eglain. To the east lay the ruins of Garth Agarwen, a fortress of Rhudaur ruled by Hill-men loyal to the mysterious Red Maid.

Falathlorn was a green and beautiful region of the Ered Luin favored by the Elves. It contained the Elvish havens of Duillond and Celondim. Not far from this region were the chilly Low-lands, site of the Dwarvish cities Gondamon and Kheledul.

Galtrev was one of the largest towns of Dunland, the nominal capitol of the country.

Maur Tulhau was a Stoorish Hobbit village in Enedwaith located in the forbidding Gloomgens. It was an remnant of the time when the Stoors lived in this region before most of their number moved north to The Shire.

The Lord of the Rings Online does not follow the story as told in The Lord of the Rings, but rather tells stories about events that happened during the same time period as the events told in J.R.R. Tolkien's book

The Lord of the Rings Online has been received very positively thus far, as reviews continue to appear since the game's initial release.[48]

GameDaily awarded the game 9/10, praising its rich, fantasy-themed universe, well-integrated trait and title system, and a story that remains true to the works of Tolkien. Yahoo! Video Games wrote a review with few negative mentions, awarding the game a score of 4/5,[49] while Computer and Video Games called the game an essential purchase for Lord of the Rings fans, scoring the game a 9.2/10.[50] Eurogamer scored the game a 9.0/10, calling it tough to resist.[51] Gamespy gave it 4.5/5 stars, claiming the game "opened up Middle-Earth to the masses" but commented negatively on its weak PvP content,[52] while GameTrailers awarded it 8.5/10,[53] citing its interesting tweaks to the MMO genre. IGN.com ranked it a similar 8.6/10, praising it for its solid experience, though criticizing it for its lack of major improvements to the genre.[54] GamerNode.com awarded the game an 8.8/10, calling it the best MMO launch experience since Ultima Online.[55] The New York Times called the game "a major achievement of interactive storytelling, the first game truly worthy of the ‘Lord of the Rings' franchise and a must-play for just about anyone with an interest in Tolkien or the future of online entertainment."[56] In a GameSpot review, the product was awarded an 8.3/10, praising its appealing polish and intriguing Monster Play feature.[57] Gamepro.com's review gave it an overall 4.25/5, pointing out how engaging the epic quests are, as well as how faithful to the novels the game managed to stay.[58] GameSpy declared The Lord of the Rings Online 'Game of the Month' for May 2007.[59]

In August 2007, Codemasters announced that The Lord of the Rings Online had received five Golden Joystick Awards nominations for the five applicable categories for the game,[60] and in October 2007 that it had won the "PC Game of the Year" at these awards.[61] and again won the same award on October 2008. In December 2007, GameSpy awarded The Lord of the Rings Online 6th place in the top 10 PC games of 2007.[62] On December 18, Turbine announced it had also won the GameSpy MMO of the Year award.[63] In January 2009, mmorpg.com awarded Turbine both MMORPG studio of the year 2008[64], and MMO Expansion of the Year for Mines of Moria.[65]

In North America, players who pre-ordered the game were offered a special founder's offer, a lifetime subscription for $199 or reduced cost of $9.99 per month. Standard monthly fee is $14.99 with three, six, twelve month, and lifetime discounts available. European players had a similar program from Codemasters.

A Holiday subscription was available in December of 2007 and January of 2008 for $9.99/month for a 3 month commitment. A one year anniversary addition includes a $9.99/month subscription or a $199.99 Lifetime subscription, which was again offered during the lead up to the release of Mines of Moria.

Warner Bros. announced on June 4, 2010 that Lord of the Rings Online will offer a free-to-play model starting in the fall of 2010.[66] On August 18, 2010, Warner Bros. announced that the free-to-play model would go live on September 10, 2010. On October 21, 2010, Codemasters announced that a preview of Free-to-Play would be available in Europe on October 25, 2010.[67]